A secret federal court last year did not deny a single request to
search or electronically spy on people within the United States "for
foreign intelligence purposes," according to a Justice Department report
this week.

The report (pdf),
which was released Tuesday to Senate majority leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.), states that during 2012, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Court (the “FISC”) approved every single one of the 1,856 applications
made by the government for authority to conduct electronic surveillance
and/or physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes.

This past year saw 5 percent more applications than 2011, though no
requests were denied in either. Besides the numbers provided, no other
information regarding the court and the court's decisions are made
public.

The secret court, which came to life in the wake of the Watergate
scandal under the President Richard M. Nixon administration, now gets
the bulk of its authority under the FISA Amendments Act, which Congress
reauthorized for another five years days before it would have expired
last year.

The act allows the government to electronically eavesdrop on
Americans’ phone calls and e-mails without a probable-cause warrant so
long as one of the parties to the communication is believed outside the
United States.